Pitt Students Celebrate Steelers' AFC Championship Victory

©2009, Timothy J. Parenti. All rights reserved.This video is 4:24 in length.

Another big victory, another big celebration!

On Sunday 18 January 2009, the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Baltimore Ravens 23-14 in the National Football League's AFC championship, earning themselves a spot in Super Bowl XLIII, to be held in Tampa, Florida on 1 February 2009.

This is video from the celebrations on the University of Pittsburgh campus.

You can also see my pictures from the celebrations, too.

Term 2094 Schedule

Another year, another semester.

I didn't really blog about finals last semester because (1) it wasn't all that exciting, and (2) it was super-duper busy. Right back from Thanksgiving Recess on Monday 1 December, we had a major presentation to present the next day (we finished it at 03:00). Then a music exam on 3 December and a Materials exam on 5 December, all before the real Finals Week was to begin.

Then it was BioChem and Transport on 9 and 10 December, respectively, before we could finally calm down. By drawing bunnies at other people's remaining exams.

Anyway, you're probably wondering how I did. Well, here you go:

ChE 0300	Transport Phenomena	6 cr.	B
ChE 0301	Transport Phenomena Laboratory	1 cr.	A
ChE 1085	Departmental Seminar	0 cr.	S
ChE 1530	Biochemistry for Engineers	3 cr.	C+
ENGR 0022	Materials Structure and Properties	3 cr.	B+
MUSIC 0311	Introduction to World Music	3 cr.	A-
MUSIC 0612	Heinz Chapel Choir	1 cr.	A+
MUSIC 0630	Marching Band	1 cr.	A

These grades represent a QPA of 3.208 on 18 credits, giving me an overall GPA of 3.460 on 88 credits. BioChem hurt the ChE scores a bit, but I still have 3.521 on 24 credits in my major.

And now, here we are at the close of a second day of another semester. This semester's classes are as follows:

Class Title and Credit Value
ASTRON 0113	Introduction to Astronomy	3 cr.
ChE 0400	Reactive Process Engineering	5 cr.
ChE 0401	Reactive Process Engineering Lab	1 cr.
ChE 1085	Departmental Seminar	0 cr.
CHEM 0340	Organic Chemistry 2 Lab	1 cr.
CHEM 1480	Intermediate Physical Chemistry	3 cr.
ENGR 1701	Fundamentals of Nuclear Reactors	3 cr.
MUSIC 0612	Heinz Chapel Choir	1 cr.
MUSIC 0631	Symphonic Band	1 cr.
		18 cr.

Classes begin 5 January 2009; final exams are 20-25 April 2009. No classes 19 January for Martin Luther King's Birthday Observance, or 8-15 March for Spring Recess.

I'm a little bit frustrated by the PChem recitation overlapping with Nuclear, because that's not how it's listed in the system, but that's how it is. Apparently some people had talked to the professor ahead of time since the original 17:00 start time conflicted with something. So the system was changed to read 17:30-17:50, but a 20-minute recitation isn't going to be useful, so we were informed that recitations will be 17:30-18:15.

Of course, I know for a fact that I'm not the only one for whom that poses a problem, so maybe if enough people band together, he might add an alternate time.

Other than that, everything's going well. Judging from "syllabus day," the ChE 0400 professor is definitely well-versed in effective pedagogical techniques, so she's definitely trying to help us learn. Let's just hope that that translates well into actual practice. ASTRON seems to strike the right combination of fun and challenge, at least judging from today's lecture and a quick skimming of the first homework set.

Exams look to be nicely spaced. Tentatively 4, 9, 18, 26 February; 18, 23 March; 8 April; and then finals. This is a feature not many of my other semesters have been able to boast. Of course, there'll be a couple reports and a presentation in there for ChE 0401 (same as always), but hopefully I'll be able to make the best of everything.

The homework is regular, too. Reactive Processes will be due Wednesdays, Astronomy on Thursdays, and, of course, the OChem labs will be due Fridays, since that's when I have it. This is also a relief. It will allow me to get into more of a routine, because I know from experience that when homework is due on seemingly random days that vary each week, I don't do well with its time-management.

Random tangent 1: I like this blogging with a goal in mind. Like blogging right before midnight, trying to get the post done on time. It keeps me on my toes.

Random tangent 2: I found a dime on the ground today, the first coinage picked up this year. Perhaps I should do a running count, akin to Laurel's coffee count?

Twenty-one

Today was my twenty-first birthday, which is often made into a much bigger deal than a typical birthday is.

No, I did not get drunk. And no, I did not drink the rum I'd gotten as an early birthday present. Don't even go there.

But I did have a nice dinner with family and friends. My grandparents; Bev and her son Danny; Barb, Mark, and their daughters (including Laurel); my aunt Lisa; Marie; Jen and her friend Candice; and the entirety of my immediate family celebrated together at The Cheesecake Factory in Pittsburgh's South Side tonight.

Although I probably made a bigger deal about the vigintennial anniversary of my birth last year (at least on this blog, mostly because my age suddenly started with a "2"), I certainly had a bigger party (of sorts) this time. I mean, you only turn 21 once, right? Of course, you could say that for any year, really...

There were lots of pictures taken as I sipped my first sip of alcohol, a white zinfandel, at 19:24. I've always heard that alcoholic drinks are an acquired taste, and I can now fully understand why. Though I'm sure it'll grow on me eventually, I don't think I liked it as much as I could have. Perhaps it didn't "match" the food I was having.

But at least I can say I tried it.

Twenty-one doesn't really feel any different from twenty right now, except that my liver is probably saying, "What's this? A new chemical to process? What fun!" The real differences will happen during this semester: simultaneously looking for a job, an internship, roommates, and an apartment. All while taking classes and having resolved to blog more? I must be crazy.

That, and I'm really tired from having packed up earlier this morning and having come down to Pittsburgh to begin a new semester tomorrow. What a whirlwind!

Honestly, I think if we called our twenty-first birthday our "sesquiquattuordecennial," a word referring to "one-and-a-half periods of 14 years," we would intentionally not make a big deal about it, just because no one would want to say it.

Except for me.

But all that matters today is that I'm 21 now, right? I certainly won't take advantage of that fact too much, too soon...

Random tangent: I was looking for alternative birthdays using decimal-based methods the other day, and noticed that 11 September 2001 was my 5000th day of life (counting my birthdate as the first). That's a little bit creepy.

Telephony

If you've tried to call me even once in the last two or three months, you've probably noticed that my Motorola RAZR V3m phone has not been kind to me. Dropped calls, random shutdowns, and just general instability.

Sometimes it would freeze, and the only way to get it back would be to take out the battery and restart it. Other times it would show full signal strength, only to have not actually communicated with the cell towers all day... something I'd only find out when I plugged it in to charge and suddenly had three voicemails.

I was more than a little unnerved when my phone, which had been so reliable for 22 months, started doing this periodically:


What caused this to happen and how it worked this way is beyond me. Honestly, you'd have to try to program in something like that. If it weren't that I were expecting (and relying on) this device to function properly, I'd find it quite amusing.

So my parents and I went to the Verizon Store on Friday, and after some thought and trying out the phones that were there, I picked the LG Decoy:


The first one the salesperson got didn't work, but he got out another one, and it's been wonderful ever since! The menu setup is very similar to that of my old phone, and it has some new features as well as improvements on old ones, including a 2-megapixel camera.

The only thing I've found that I'm not thrilled with is that the recent calls list only lists the single most recent call to, from, and missed from a given number, whereas my old phone listed each individual call. I used to use that if I couldn't get a hold of someone to remind myself how many times I'd tried their number and when.

But I think I'll get over not having that anymore.

My parents also decided to splurge and add on a small SMS plan to the contract. Yes, that's right. Texting. Hell hath frozen over.

Since the allotment is small, I probably won't be using it for much, but it's good to know it's there, especially since nowadays college students will just assume you can receive SMS. Especially since it'll help for those times when people won't answer their phones.

So to those of you who know me, give me a call, send me a message! I'd love to talk sometime.

Random tangent: I don't usually open birthday gifts at Christmas, but I decided to make an exception for my Uncle Dave's gift this year. I don't know why I did, because as it turns out, it was a bottle of rum. In five minutes' time, I will be able to legally consume said rum. I think I'll wait a bit longer.